The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to set up a Headquarters for Promoting Countermeasures to the Shrinking Number of Children

To further strengthen measures and programs to offset the shrinking number of children, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has worked out a plan entitled Countermeasures to the Shrinking Number of Children Plus One, and submitted it to Prime Minister Koizumi. The plan was approved at the Cabinet meeting held on September 20. The Ministry's planned initiative calls for, among other things, the whole of society to promote so-called "work-sharing through diversified styles of work" through increasing shorter work hours or working every other day, for example.

Based on this plan, the Ministry will set up its Headquarters for Promoting Countermeasures to the Shrinking Number of Children and will subsequently investigate, by the end of this year, specific programs and initiatives that would take into account the implementation of legislative measures, including the reexamination of the Childcare Leave Law, Child Welfare Law, and other relevant laws.

This follows Prime Minister Koizumi's instructions to the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare in May on the implementation of measures that will be upgraded a step further compared with conventional measures. Against this background is the need to cope with the shrinking population of children that was found to have declined even faster than in initial projections.

Of special note among the many specific proposals incorporated into the plan is the reexamination of styles of work, including male work patterns. The proposal encourages that overtime work be reduced to less than 1 hour per day during child rearing periods, and that all such male employees take a minimum of five days off following the birth of each child.

Moreover, as key goals for the next 2 to 3 years, the percentages of male and female workers who take child care leave are to be raised from 0.55% and 57.9% as of FY1999, respectively, to 10% and 80%, respectively. Also, the target percentage of workers taking leave to care for sick children is to be raised to 25%, while the proportion of parents who adopt shorter work hours until their children reach elementary school age is also to be 25%.

The cooperation of relevant ministries and agencies, local municipalities, and the industrial sector is absolutely essential to finalize these programs, implement them, and meet these goals.